


Regression

by JVirgo90



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-10 14:04:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17427302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JVirgo90/pseuds/JVirgo90
Summary: All Nora knows is that she was in Hell and suddenly she wasn't anymore. She had no idea what was in store for her from the minute she was born.(Set in seasons 4 and beyond. Starts when Dean comes back from Hell)ON HOLD





	1. Prologue

**September 18, 2008**

It wasn't the first breath of life, but it was the heaviest. Through the dense air and the darkness of the small space that Nora resided in, her body convulsed in pain as she gasped for air. Heaving, her eyes wandered maniacally searching for a source of light and finally found just a sliver to her left, a small crack. She tried to move her body, to angle her mouth to the light hoping to breathe in outside air, but found her wrists and ankles were bound. Panicking, she opened her mouth to scream, but nothing sounded. Her throat felt like she had swallowed rocks, her tongue and cheeks dry. Nora opted, instead, to muster the little strength she had to stomp her feet against the steel walls that surrounded her. Hopefully by making so much noise, someone would hear her. Seconds ticked by, then minutes, but those minutes felt like hours and she was losing air quicker.

She continuously slammed her feet against the steel, the noise within wherever she was, resounding, making her ears ring. Tears instantly spilled as she started to feel weaker and weaker. The heat sure didn't help matters either, tiring her quicker. Finally, with one last slam of her feet against the steel, light started to suddenly pool in around her. She closed her eyes and she felt a cool breeze toss the loose strands of hair over her face, neck, and bare shoulders. And then she heard a voice, deep and rough.

"Who the hell are you?"

Nora slowly and painfully opened her eyes, squinting at what she realized was the sun that had illuminated the space around her. Her vision was blurry and it took a couple of blinks for it to clear before the shadowy figure standing above her was defined. Not only did a man she did not recognize loom over her, staring at her quizzically, but he had a gun aimed right between her eyes. She realized now she had been in the trunk of a car, was bound, and left there to rot. Only thing was, she remembered being killed. Her body was brought here by someone only after the fact and the last thing she remembered was being in Hell before she woke again. It took her a couple seconds to find her voice, not wanting to prolong this little interaction and find herself back in Hell.

"W-where...Where are we?"

"The hell if I know," he scolded, "why are you here?"

Truth was, she didn't know either. She remembered being killed by a man and being in Hell, but nothing other than that.

"Maybe you could untie me and then I'll talk," she offered, slight defiance in her voice.

He looked at her for a beat and smiled smugly.

"Yeah, right, princess. How do I know you aren't gonna try and send my ass back to Hell?"

Nora's eyes widened and her breaths became laboured.

"You were there too?"

The man lowered his gun at the question, but still had it trained on her.

" _Too?_ What do you mean?"

Nora shook her head and tried to sit up, albeit struggling to. At her sudden movement, he brought the gun back up to pointing at her head and she stilled.

"Listen, I don't know how I got here, okay! All I know is some man killed me and I was in Hell and then literally minutes ago I woke up here. Now would you please just get me out of here?"

The man hesitated and she watched his every movement. The way he started to take a step back, and she noticed his entire body was covered, head to toe, in dirt. She watched his arms come behind him as he wedged the gun into the waistline of his jeans behind his back. He reached for her and she flinched. He hesitated noticing her tense with his hands hovering over her upper arms.

"Can you sit up?"

Once she realized he was going to help her out of the trunk she tried to sit all the way up, but struggled and allowed him to grab her arms to sit her up fully. He untied her bound wrists and ankles quickly and took her hand as he guided her out of the back of the car. She dusted herself off and he watched her guardedly. She looked away from him and around herself and realized she was in the in the middle of nowhere. To her right was a long stretch of road and dead grass on either side, and to her left was a small gas station that looked like it had been abandoned decorated in rust and grime. 

"Where are we," Nora spoke, her throat itchy and dry.

The man cast a look around himself as well and shrugged his shoulders.

"I have no idea. One minute I was in," his sentence trailed off , "And then I...clawed my ass out of the ground from six feet under."

Her head snapped to look up at him and her eyes widened. At the look she was giving him he cocked his head to the side and shot her a look back that said, I know right?

"Do you remember why...you were there?"

"Yeah, I made a deal to bring my brother back. What about you?"

Nora tried to pick at her brain but only came up frustratingly short. Tears threatened to spill as she cast her gaze at the ground unable to look the man in the eye. She almost felt a sense of embarrassment and shame that she couldn't remember. It was because it was the smallest detail, but the biggest. She remembered being killed. She had been in some cheap motel with...two, maybe three men. She remembered the torture she faced in Hell, and she remembered a name being repeated to her over and over, but the name she couldn't remember at all. The reason for all of it just wasn't there. 

"I don't know...I don't think I made a deal. I just remember dying and then"...

Flashes of memories from being in the pit weakened her, practically shoved her as she tried to catch herself on the rear of the car.

_strung up in midair by rusty chains that never seemed to end...others just as she, above and below her and further down a fiery abyss. A cacophony of screams and cries surrounded her._

 

_chains were connected to dull hooks that protruded from both of her shoulders and she was in nothing but a pair of underwear and a blood soaked wife beater._

_a name...Dean._

"...Dean," she spoke softly.

The man heard, but backed away from her and she could swear he started to reach for his gun before he stopped and leaned over to match her height.

"...Nora? Are you Nora?"

She searched his eyes and found herself trying to find familiarity in the light green ones staring wildly at her own light blue ones.

"Someone said... I was going to find a-a Nora, but how do you know my name?"

Nora started to feel less queasy and managed to stand up straight again.

"I just remember the demons always talked about you. Nothing specific, but they said something about you being important and that you had escaped...and then I woke up here. But, why do you know me? Why did you have to find me?"

She watched Dean's shoulders slump in defeat and he came around beside her to sit against the still opened trunk.

"I got no idea," he sighed.

Nora looked down at him and watched him look beyond at the open stretch of road before them, and finally to the abandoned gas station. Both of them, eventually, sat in silence trying to make sense of everything, but finding no answers. That's when Dean abruptly stood up and started walking through the humidity and dry winds towards the station leaving Nora alone and trying to decide if she would follow this man, this seemingly important, Dean.


	2. Chapter 2

The shattering of glass just a ways in the distance broke Nora from her spiral into her own mind. She had been trying to figure out what to do next now that she was suddenly back on the earthly plain. Peering over, a hand shielding the sun from her eyes, she watched Dean break into the gas station. Hurriedly, she jogged as fast as her stiff legs could take her over to him. Despite looking like she had any other day and not some kind of zombie, the car was still cramped enough to feel its effects. When she reached him she saw him picking up a newspaper and staring at it in confusion. He held it up to show her.

“September,” he said in disbelief, “You remember when you kicked the bucket?”

Nora shook her head, a frown on her lips. 

“I just know that I’m Nora. Not much else.”

“Yeah, well, if this is right, I’ve been cookin’ down there for four months.”

“Feels like longer,” she said sullenly. 

Dean nodded in agreement. As she looked around the gas station, which from the outside looked abandoned, it became very clear to her that they had broken into a, still, very much running establishment. 

“Hope this place doesn’t have working cameras.”

She watched him open up a fridge and grab two bottled waters, handing one to her before bringing his own to his lips and chugging it like he had no time to waste. She started with small sips at first, feeling guilty about not paying for it, but when he turned away, she mimicked him. It was how she imagined it would be if she could remember tasting water for the first time. It has an unexplainable taste, but was comparable to heaven itself. Even that she couldn’t explain, though. 

“I’m gonna find a bathroom,” Dean said and left her to snoop. 

Nora walked around slowly, occasionally watching the windows in case anybody came by and that’s when she noticed the phone booth outside. Heading towards the direction of where Dean took off to she found him standing inside, the bathroom door open, and he was staring at himself, water still dripping off his chin and nose. 

“Hey, there’s a phone booth outside. You wouldn’t happen to have any change would you? Maybe we could call the police or something.”

He didn’t respond immediately, almost looking like he was in a trance before he blinked away the puzzled look on his face and gazed at her. 

“We just broke into this place, calling the police? Yeah, no. And I don’t have any change, but this place does,” he said smiling. 

Still frowning she felt a feeling wash over her and though following him back outside and back inside the station, she said,

“You don’t have change, but you have a gun,” the distrust in her voice prompting him to turn on her. 

“Guess whoever buried me, figured I would need it.”

He walked around the counter, looking once out the window before somehow managing to unlock the cash drawer, an audible yes! when it dinged open, before he started loading up cash into a plastic shopping bag.

“And you don’t think that’s concerning?”

He closed the drawer, making his way, now to the aisles of food and other convenient toiletries, stocking up as much as his bag could take.

“Maybe, not in the way you think it should, sweetheart.”

Fed up, she boldly grabbed his arm to stop him just as he was about to pack away an, in her opinion, unnecessary porn magazine. 

“I answered your questions when you asked me. I know I don’t remember much about my situation, but clearly you know more than me. So, who are you?”

Sighing he rolled up the magazine and stuffed it in the bag.

“I’m a hunter. By the mere fact that I’m still intact, I’m guessing someone didn’t want to give me a hunter’s funeral.”

“A hunter? Like, what, killing Bambi?”

“Demons, monsters, everything in between. You said you didn’t make a deal, I figured you knew about this kind of thing. You’re not a hunter?”

Nora stared at him like he was tripping on something. 

“If I was I sure don’t remember anything. Like I said, at this point I’m just a name.”

They both waited in silence.

“And the gun?”

“I have a brother, we can try and call him. He’s the only one I know that would bury me instead of burn me. As for the gun…I don’t like the reason I think he might have left it in there with me.”

Nora nodded in understanding.

“You think he brought you back somehow?”

Dean didn’t make any acknowledgment to her question, but somehow she didn’t need an answer. She could see the panic in his eyes. 

“Not for nothing, but most people have existential breakdowns when I give them the “I hunt monsters” talk. So, what’s wrong with you?”

Nora couldn’t put her finger on the lack of feelings towards his revelation she didn’t feel, but she thought of the glimpses she got of being chained up in Hell. She nearly got a migraine trying to scratch the surface of her brain that she knew had to eventually remember what had been done to her while she was down there. 

“I was in Hell. If demons exist, why not everything else? Plus…something tells me I’m not a stranger to it all.”

Biting the corner of his lips, a furrowed brow, he suddenly sat the bag down. 

“Well speaking of things that go bump in the night. I think we need to figure out who, or what busted both our asses out. Look at this.”

Moving closer to him, he turned his left shoulder to her and raised the short sleeve of his black t-shirt over his shoulder, hissing in pain as the material rubbed against the hand-shaped welt spread over the expanse. She hissed through her teeth, almost feeling a kind of sympathy pain for him…until she started to feel what she thought was phantom pain on her right shoulder. She stepped away and over to a fisheye shaped mirror in the corner of the station above them, angling her right shoulder towards it and pulling down her sweater sleeve to reveal the same red handprint. Dean came up behind her examining the welt. 

“What the hell,” he said. 

It was clear to them both in that moment that they were no longer strangers, despite knowing very little about one another. 

And then the TV by the counter clicked on and broke their focus. 

“Maybe bad wiring,” Nora hoped. 

Dean walked over to the TV and turned it off only for the radio across the room to click on in its place filling the station with the sound of white noise. As Nora stayed watching the radio, Dean walked passed her quickly grabbing a can of salt from the top shelf and he started to line the window sill with it. She wondered what good that would do, but not enough time wondering before she heard Dean groan in agony and hold his left ear with his hand still pouring the salt with his right. 

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

He dropped the can and covered both of his ears as he crouched on the floor, Nora standing above him her hands touching his back hesitantly, and that’s when she heard it. A voice. The window shattered then and she held her arm over her face and turned away. The voice was deep, but alien and he was speaking in a language she couldn’t pinpoint. He seemed to be repeating something though as she started to recognize the same sounds, the same words. Dean cautiously looked up her in disbelief and through his agony raised one arm to pull her down with him. He protectively wrapped an arm over her to shield her from any incoming, well, anything. And rightfully so, because as she continued to listen to the voice, he winced in pain, and soon every window, glass door, and mirror in the place burst, scattering shards of glass inward, and then the noise stopped. 

They both looked up and around and slowly stood back up, but Dean was no longer concerned about whatever the hell that was.

“You didn’t hear that!?”

“A heard a voice.”

“A voice? All I heard was a high pitch ringing! You really didn’t hear that?”

Nora shook her head no, backing away almost in self-defense. 

“Well, okay, you heard a voice. What did it say?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t speaking English.”

Dean sighed in defeat and angrily grabbed the bag from the counter, tip.toeing around the larger shards of glass. 

“Come on,” he said walking passed her urging her to follow him outside. 

They walked back into the blistering heat to the phone booth and he opened the door and started fishing for quarters inserting them into the payphone. Nora leaned against the glass case watching him. He dialed a number and after a few beats sighed as he hung up the phone and started inserting more coins. He dialed another number and went back and forth with whoever was on the other end of the line. From the sounds of it, this person didn’t believe it was really him, and she couldn’t blame whoever it was he was trying to get into contact with. Dean was obviously hung up on as he hung up the phone himself and stared out ahead of him.

“That car yours?”

Nora looked over at the car she was found in and shook her head. 

“Guess there’s only one way to find out.”

——————————————————————————————————————-

Nora sat in the driver’s seat, opening every compartment searching for keys and anything that would signify it as hers, but so far nothing. She brought down the mirror hoping keys would fall out, but instead a square picture did. She picked it up as Dean leaned over, his arm still resting on the driver’s side door. The picture revealed a close up shot of a man and what looked to be his son on some kind of fishing expedition stemming from the fact that the both proudly held fishing rods in one hand and their catch in the other. The father, was only slightly taller than his son, a full dark brown beard, his white smile peeking through, and the hair on his head the same shade, but cut short. The son had the same color hair, a little longer and slightly curly, the curls only reached above his eyes, round and, as Nora glanced at herself in the mirror, similar to hers, only green like the man beside him. 

“So,” Dean prompted. 

She held the picture up to him. 

“Judging on the resemblance, I’d say I know them.”

Dean studied the picture looking between her and the men photographed. 

“Family?”

“I think so…who knows… all I know is, it’s definitely their car. Why I was left in the trunk, I have no idea, and no keys. So, I hope you know how to hot-wire a car.”

He beckoned her out of the car pursing his lips in an expression that said oh please. 

“Do I know how to hot-wire a car,” he mumbled, and did he! In mere seconds he had the car up and running. 

Excitedly, Nora rushed over to the other side of the car getting in. 

“Well, you just get more and more mysterious,” she remarked. 

“Right back at ya,” he smiled and they took off down the open stretch of road to a destination only Dean knew, a man named Bobby’s house in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

——————————————————————————————————————

_No one could have ever prepared her for this life. Or rather, this afterlife. If you could even call it that. Where, in Heaven, one probably sat on a chair made of gold, in Hell, she was strung up with rusty chains in midair with nothing below her except others like her and a bottomless, damned abyss of fire and smoke. The chains had dull hooks piercing her through her shoulders and feet, dried blood coating each side they protruded from. Fresh blood coated every patch of skin visible. She was left in nothing but a barely white wife-beater and underwear. Humility was the demons favorite torture among so many others._

_Thick, black smoke infiltrated her body. It clouded her senses, mainly her ability to breathe and see clearly. And everything smelled like rotting flesh. When she arrived here so many years ago, it made her gag every breath she took. But, eighty years down the line, she got used to it. She was never cooled off. The fire around her and the other lost souls made that impossible, so they were always drenched in sweat. Blood, sweat, and tears. Hell’s motto._

_And after eighty years she thought she must be immune to pain anymore. The demons had ripped and sliced and tore and when she was healed back up, they did it all over again. There was no relief ever. No breaks. Torture was constant. For every soul in Hell, there was a demon. And they were an eager bunch._

_Mara was her demon. Her torturer. A master of death. She used every trick in the book. Regular torture, the physical kind, manipulation…and the worst of all, temptation. For eighty years, Mara gave her a choice. Be tortured by her or by someone she knew whose very own soul was in Hell as well. She promised her that if she chose this familiar face, everything would be okay. That she would save the world. All she had to do was give in. But she couldn’t. Torture was bad enough without having to have someone you know do the torturing, and it scared her more than ever that it could very well be anyone. So, she continued to let Mara take the job._

_But that was the last time she was tortured which seemed like it was weeks ago, but more than likely it was only minutes ago. Time worked differently down here, obviously. Time was all an illusion._

_Honestly, she was tired. Always tired. And she lost her will to keep fighting. With heavy-lidded, bruised, and battered eyes, she watched as the pit around her started crumbling and instead three walls of dirty, corroded cinder blocks built themselves up around her. Her chains twisted around her like snakes, connecting themselves to hooks on the walls._

_In front of her was a wall made up entirely of rusted, black, iron bars. This place was a jail cell. But this wasn’t the first time she’d been locked up, which meant Mara was on her way to propose the same deal._

_Everything was silent except for the steam that pumped in hallways that connected the cells and the very distant screams. Her head was tilted down, her chin resting on her chest. And then she heard the clicking of heels. She slowly raised her head up and saw Mara standing outside of her cell looking in at her with a smug expression._

_She had light brown skin illuminated by the light from the flames just ahead of her, giving her skin an eerie glow as shadows danced across the plains of her face. She had on all black, showing off her slim figure and her long black hair was pulled up into a slick pony tail high up on her head._

_“You look like shit,” she said ever so thoughtfully._

_Mara walked into the cell and slowly and seductively walked to stand in front of her. She brought up one finger and lifted her head up by her chin and looked directly into her eyes. She knew immediately she would go into the same speech. The same proposal every time and she wanted immediately to decline. But Mara didn’t give her the chance, and she was too tired to muster up anything to stop her._

_“I have a proposal for you.”_

_Mara’s tone had changed. She seemed…thoughtful…hopeful almost. And her eyes had a light in them she had never seen before in the eighty years she spent being tortured. There was a sparkle just beyond the dark black void they usually were. Something that sparked so much interest in her now that she couldn’t look away and fought to keep her head up._

_“I’ve had enough of trying to push you. You don’t break easily, and while I admire that quality in people, I’m done. We found someone this time. Someone special.”_

_Nora’s head rolled back and she peered down her nose at Mara. Leave it to her to make it seem like being tortured by someone you know would make it easier. Like she would choose that over Mara._

_“No, no, Nora. When I said special, I meant special. He doesn’t know you…you don’t know him…yet,” she winked, “Almost makes me jealous thinking of all the ways you’ll get to, well, know him,” she finished walking closer to her practically breathing in each other’s air._

_“This time it’s different,” Mara continued, “I happen to know some very important beings are on their way down to rescue Dean Winchester from here. Top secret! What I’m offering you…is him. He’s your ticket outta here, sweetheart. All you have to do…is take it.”_

_She stared at Mara trying to see past the deception, the trick. If she wouldn’t say yes to someone she knew why would she say yes to this man just because a demon promises he’ll be her way out of this?_

_“You’re lying,” she muttered._

_“Am I,” Mara challenged, “I’m giving you one last chance. This isn’t going to be easy for you, but in the end you’ll be thanking me for telling you this. Dean is your way out. Take it, or be damned for eighty more years and then some. You won’t get a chance like this again.”_

_She considered this and thought of the feeling of being alive again. Of feeling the sun on her face. Water coating her throat and body. Hell, she thought of face planting into a cheeseburger. But mostly, she thought of her brother. The one who was supposed to be down here in the first place. She thought of the look on his face when she would find him. And that was enough for her to give in. Seeing her brother again._

_“Okay. I’ll go…with him,” she mumbled._

_Mara’s lips turned up in a sideways grin, fully satisfied that she was finally saying yes to something. She only left out a small little detail of why she was helping her get out and what Nora would have to face when she went topside. She walked over to the barred wall and stood outside of the cell for a moment. She took one last look at her and turned her head sideways looking at something, or someone, to the left of her, nodding, beckoning for whoever it was to come on over. She heard the steady sound of boots hitting concrete and one pair of boots in more of a scuffle, like he was being dragged and only caught a small peek at someone before-_

“Nora, come on, wake up. We’re here. Come meet my brother”

Nora’s eyes fluttered open and she wiped the sleep from them realizing she and Dean were not alone. Dean was hunched over looking at her in the passenger seat where she clearly had fallen asleep, and for quite some time. It was dark outside, neon lights casting a red glow on the car and making the raindrops glisten on the windows and front hood of the car. She looked up and out of the window to see the cause of the glow, an Astoria Motel. She looked over to see two other men. One was a shorter man in a beat up trucker hat, scruffy looking, and looking at her like she was an exhibit. The other stood much taller, longish brown hair and a curious, but seemingly wary expression on his face. 

“Where are we? How long was I out,” she said, her throat dry.

“We’re back in Pontiac, Illinois where we came to. You slept a whole day and a half,” Dean answered in almost disbelief. 

Nora attempted to move Dean aside so she could get out of the car. She stood on shaky legs and took in a deep breath looking at the men in slight embarrassment of herself. She felt like she needed to explain herself. As if Dean hadn’t told them anything already in the time she spent practically dead again. 

“Guess I didn’t get enough sleep when I was dead either,” the words spilled themselves and she was suddenly brought hurdling back into the dream she had been having while she was asleep. It was then she realized it hadn’t been a dream at all, but a memory and she quickly turned to Dean to explain. 

“I did make a deal.”

“What do you mean,” Dean smiled. 

“I had a dream, only it was more of a memory of Hell. I was with a demon, Mara, she told me you were my ticket out of Hell. She made it sound like it was top secret though. So, whatever got you out, wasn’t expecting me to be there with you which means…I was never supposed to leave,” she paused, searching through her memory to remember more,” “And I do have a brother. I remember thinking that I wanted to see him again, that he was supposed to be there, but I was instead.”

Dean nodded in understanding and looked away at the ground. 

“You went to Hell for him,” he stated more than asked, “But…”

“I just can’t remember why.” 

The taller man stepped up closer and offered a friendly smile to Nora. 

“Well, hey, we may not know you, but if it means anything, it’s good to see someone outta there…both of you,” he said looking at Dean. 

“Oh, right, Nora, this is my brother, Sam, and our friend, Bobby,” Dean pointed to the other man further away. 

Nora stood, feeling small next to both Dean and Sam, but Sam more so, as he offered his hand to her. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his and like electricity, she felt a quick spark and saw something she couldn’t explain. 

_She couldn’t see herself, only through the perspective of someone’s eyes. She wasn’t even sure if they were her own. It was as if she was some kind of omnipotent presence. Whoever this was, was staring out into a forest at night. This person didn’t feel afraid as they ran, barefoot through the grounds. The person stopped when they saw another figure just a few feet ahead. The black outline turned around to face them and when it did, it’s shape quickly morphed. Still human, but with web-like, and apparently, torn wings sprouting from its back._

As quickly as the electric shock jolted the memory to the forefront of her mind, she came back to reality. 

“Nora, you okay,” Sam asked, still holding her hand. 

Nora looked up into his eyes, feeling a sense of dread and quickly removed her hand from his. He almost looked offended. 

“I don’t mean to break up the moment, but we really should be going,” the man, Bobby, interrupted. 

“Right, come on. We’re taking my car,” Dean smiled. 

“What about mine,” Nora asked. 

“I mean unless you think it’s going to help you,” he answered already leaning on thinking she should ditch it. She almost felt defensive watching him sneer at it, despite claiming it only moments ago as hers.

Nora sighed and climbed back in grabbing the picture of what she could only still guess was her father and brother. She looked at it one more time before stuffing it in the back pocket of her jeans. 

“Alright, where to,” she asked. 

“A psychic. She's about four hours down the Interstate. Try to keep up,” Bobby said to all three of them before making his way over to his own car. 

Nora followed Sam and Dean over to a sleek, black car, to which Nora somehow immediately recognized as an Impala. How, again, she didn’t know. 

“Nice car,” she complimented. 

You could practically see the sun shining out of Dean’s ass at her words. Like a sense of accomplishment washed over him. He looked over at Sam with a shit-eating grin when he replied back to Nora with a quick thank you. Sam only scoffed. 

“I assume you’ll want to drive,” Sam said throwing Dean the keys. 

Dean approached the Impala and, lovingly, ran his hand along it. 

“Hey, sweetheart, did you miss me?”

And from then on, they traveled the road looking for answers, one roar of an engine at a time. Nora sat in the backseat, of all things troubling her, wondering how she ended up in this car, with these men talking demons, monsters, and everything near and far in between. What made her head ache even more was the fact that Dean seemed to know everything that happened to him, but she couldn’t remember a damn thing. Until the memories started to overflow and leak into her dreams as she slept. She concentrated on Dean, watching him catch up with his brother, Sam. Here he was having died and come back and, although probably shocked, Sam didn’t really seem like it was a big deal. As if this kind of thing just happened to them all the time. Her gaze locked on Sam for awhile longer as if she was trying to figure him out, and she was. Nora had a game of tug of war in her mind on whether she should tell them about the other memory or whatever you wanted to call it, when she shook Sam’s hand. Was it a sign, a warning, a memory of her own? She was starting to drive herself crazy coming up with more and more questions and less answers. So fed up, in fact, that surprisingly she found herself tiring of even thinking at all. You’d think a day and a half of sleep would’ve been enough, but after supposedly being in Hell for eighty years, she wasn’t sure she’d ever get enough ever in her life. She opted to rest, turning her body so she was spread out across the back seat. 

Dean, upon hearing shifting in the back seat, unbeknownst to her, checked on her in his rearview mirror. He waited a few minutes before he lowered his voice. 

“There’s still one thing that’s bothering me. Hell, actually there’s a lot that’s still bothering me,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Sam questioned. 

“First of all, If Nora wasn’t supposed to be released then, A) Why would a _demon_ let her in on the secret and B) Who took her, us, both out unscathed, more or less? And two, the night I bit it. Or…got bit,” he chuckled, “How’d you make it out? I thought Lilith was going to kill you.”

Sam shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

“She tried, she couldn’t. Honestly, we can go back and forth about this all night and I don’t think any of us are going to immediately find an answer. “

“Wait, what do you mean, she couldn’t?”

“She fired this, like, burning light at me, and…didn’t leave a scratch. Like I was immune or something.”

Nora was wide awake, facing the back of the seat and listening with full attention at that. _I knew it_ , she thought. There was something off about him. She secretly listened in on their conversation about someone named Ruby and having ESP stuff. More importantly, it seemed, Sam was done using whatever ESP power he had claiming it was Dean’s dying wish that he wouldn’t use it. This only made her wonder if that’s what caused her to see what she saw when they touched hands and if Sam was omitting that from the conversation just as she was too. With hours on their plates left until they were to meet this psychic, Nora shut her eyes and hoped for answers. 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little warning, there's some material that doesn't go into detail, but is mentioned of the torture Nora went through that could be harmful to anyone reading it. It's not detailed at all, like I said, but still. I just want to be on the safe side. Sorry this chapter took a bit for me to get out, life ya know? Anyways, hope you enjoy! 
> 
> I don't own anything Supernatural related, just my OC and any additional info and plot surrounding her.

**Chapter 3**

**Orleans 1994**

_The girl walked the French Quarter, its 18th century architecture looming over the crowds of young people. The distinct smell of pot blanketed the closed off streets where people from all over the country mingled with the locals. Lively music boomed over the voices of the crowds in the street, screaming, cat-calling, singing along. She passed by several girls with their tits out hoping to score dollar store beads, looking for a thrill. The only noise the girl could hear was the voice in her head pounding against her skull telling her to follow the path for a different thrill. The girl itched the side of her head casting her gaze downward as she made her way through the crowd, holding her tattered bag tightly against her side. She was just about to her destination when she heard a whistle singled out from the noise to her right followed by her name._

_“Liz…Liz, ova here!”_

_She had to squint to see who was calling her out, the voice coming from the darkness of the alleyway beside her. The man stepped forward to reveal himself as a cop. She started to back away._

_“Hey, man, I don’t want any trouble,” she said._

_“Neither do I,” he replied._

_Liz furrowed her brows before looking both directions and deciding to hesitantly walk over to him. The cop sensed her fear._

_“I promise I’m not gonna rat ya out or anythin’. You can trust me,” his cajun accent came through heavily and was convenient for him as a cop, as a southern accent always sounded sweet, even if they meant for it not to be._

_She walked up to him and he looked her once over. Her brown hair was stringy and to the middle of her back. She wore a dull colored floral dress over a band t-shirt, Smashing Pumpkins. Her eye makeup was smudged and black, unkept. By the looks of it she either didn’t eat or the drugs kept her skinny. Or both. She bit her nails waiting for him to speak before she clearly got fed up._

_“Well, uh, listen pig, you’re not the first cop I’ve come across that I’ve heard that from, so are you gonna take me in, or ask me for my number,” she said._

_The cop laughed at this and instead offered his hand like he was expecting something to be put in his palm._

_“Ya got the money,”he asked._

_“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”_

_Sighing he put his hand back down by his side and looked around behind her. He lowered his voice and bent down to be eye level with her._

_“I promise, Liz. The cops have been in on this for longer than you think. We’ve been given a picture of you…their number one client, right?”_

_Liz watched him cautiously, still not believing what he was selling. She’d been going to Adrian and his drug mules for a year and a half and never once had she encountered a cop in on the whole thing. So, why would she trust him now? She felt the shivers, though, the unrelenting symptoms of a nearing withdrawal. She felt electricity in her veins, jolting her every second. It was the only way she stayed awake. She heard the voice that told her to say, fuck this guy, she needed a hit._

_“So…I give you the money and then what? How do I know you ain’t just gonna cuff me?”_

_“You don’t…but…how bout we just hand them over at the same time? I’ll drop my gun and the cuffs if need be.”_

_Fidgeting and itching to get a move on, Liz agreed and nodded her head. She watched Deputy Dumbass slowly take the gun and his cuffs off of his belt and kneel down to drop them. As he placed them both down on the ground, she neared him. And just like that, they each handed each other what was required of them for a successful transaction. The dough in exchange for the little packet of a white substance. Her freedom from the aches in her body and the emotional pain that came with it. Without a word, she turned around and started to walk out of the alley._

_“Liz,” the cop called._

_Liz turned around to face him._

_“‘Tween me and you…I don’ want this, what I’m doin'…my wife’s sick. I need the money.”_

_Liz stayed silent, sympathizing for the cop for only a second before she realized that none of this mattered to her. We all have problems, she thought. She was about to turn away when he continued._

_“I can give you back the money, I’ll take the drugs…we can pretend this never happened. You can go buy y’self something to eat.”_

_For only a moment Liz considered this option. She thought of her life before the drugs. It wasn’t much better off, but she was clean. She was going somewhere, but the pusher in her head was relentless.The only path she chose to follow was the one that got her high. So, without another word, she turned around, ignoring the cop, but she stopped in her tracks immediately. The cop now stood directly in front of her and his eyes went from a brilliant blue to a deep black._

_“You really should’ve given up the drugs,” he said feigning shamefulness._

_The last image Liz saw was the lively street just feet in front of her. She felt the cold of the wet cement on her cheek, soaking through her clothes. And lastly, the warm, sticky, crimson liquid that pooled around her head and neck from the slit across her throat. Her body would be found days later in the infamous Louisiana swamps where she was dumped. What was left of her anyways. When she was found, the reporters would write that her head was visible first and the swamp creatures had taken advantage of her drug filled remains. The frogs had inhabited her torso while the snakes slithered out of her open mouth between two pale blue lips._

**Present Day**

Nora woke up choking, feeling the cold scales of snake skin against her lips before reality set in. She felt the car swerve and heard Sam and Dean, startled in the front seat at her sudden outburst. She had sat up straight, directly between them breathing heavily and trying to catch her breath. The impala came to a sudden stop just on the off shoulder of whatever backroad they were on. The sun was inching over the horizon, projecting a subtle orange glow around them. 

“Jesus, Nora,” Dean said, also trying to regain composure. 

Sam turned in his seat and gave Dean a classic “bitch face” before focusing his attention on Nora. She looked up at him when she felt his eyes on her. The guilt followed in pursuit.

“I’m…I’m s-sorry. It was just…it was just a nightmare. I’m sorry,” she repeated. 

“A nightmare? Was it a memory or just…,” Sam questioned. 

Nora couldn’t look him straight in the eye and she couldn’t look for the answer he wanted to hear, that she remembered something that would be helpful. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to tell either of them what she had just dreamt because she wasn’t sure what it was. If it was a memory it certainly wasn’t hers. However, it was too vivid to not be consequential. More importantly, though in much more detail, it closely resembled her moment with Sam. What she had seen when their hands touched. This Liz, it wasn’t her, but the dream made it seem as if she were in this girl’s body. Like everything she was seeing was from her point of view. 

“No…no it wasn’t a memory. It was…”, Nora trailed off looking between both brothers as they desperately waited for an answer., “…it was about…snakes.”

“You scared the shit outta me because of snakes,” Dean scolded. 

“I’m…sorry. I just really hate snakes,” she lied, though it wasn’t a complete lie. 

Nora chanced a peek at Sam who was still studying her with pursed lips and a furrowed brow, a look she came to find was annoyingly directed at her quite frequently. Not that she could blame him. Still, he was onto her. 

“So, you know next to nothing about yourself, but all of the sudden you know you’re afraid of snakes,” Sam questioned. 

She stared back at him hard trying to think of a way out of it. 

“Well, based on the dream I had, I’d say we weren’t friends, the snake and I,” she shot back. 

“Sure,” he backed off, though not satisfied. 

Nora sat back in the seat crossing her arms and keeping her eyes laser focused on the window until she once again fell back asleep. Only this time, no dreams, just black nothingness. 

 

**Two hours later**

The sun was shining high over an ordinary house in an ordinary neighborhood. Nora awakened by the slamming of a car door. On Dean’s side to be specific. Sam leaned over and looked at her through the window. 

“You comin’?”

She peered around him and looked up at the house watching Bobby and Dean make their way up the front porch and to the door where they turned and watch Sam and Nora’s interaction. That’s when she felt it. It was an uneasiness. The kind that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stick straight up. It felt intrusive, but not threatening. Whatever it was, it had eyes and it was definitely watching her, or maybe even all of them. She couldn’t think of how to describe it to herself let alone Sam. 

“I’ll just wait in the car,” she muttered. 

Nora’s breathing became heavy as she stared ahead of herself and Sam observed her, seeing her knuckles turning white as she tightened her fists around the edge of the seat. 

“Are you okay,” Sam questioned and it was the sincerity in his voice that caught Nora’s attention and took it away from the road ahead. She wondered if he could be someone she confided in as he seemed a little more open to talking than his brother did. The more she thought about it the more impatient Dean got waiting for them to meet him and Bobby at the door as he so vocally made aware. It couldn’t hurt and it’s not like she really had anything to lose. 

“I just…I think there’s something here. I can’t really explain it, it’s just a feeling,” she nearly whispered. 

Sam only nodded.

“Like…a demon?”

“No…I mean maybe. I don’t know I just…I feel like something is watching us.”

“Watching us? Well, this woman…she’s a psychic. Is it possible you’re just…I don’t know, feeling her?”

Nora considered this. The idea that she was watching them wasn’t entirely out of the ballpark, she had to admit, but there was something else. As if, unknowingly, inaudibly, she was already given the answer. It was not the psychic. 

“I just think it’s better that I stay out here.”

“We can’t protect you if you’re out here-“

“I don’t need you to protect me. If something happens I’ll honk the horn. Promise.”

With reluctance, Sam agreed and gently hit the opening of the rolled down window before turning and walking away. 

**15 Minutes Later**

A lot could happen in such a short time, and quite simultaneously too. Pamela, Bobby’s psychic friend, spread a black seance sheet over a circular, wooden table. Flirting commenced over a lower back tattoo about a Jesse that wasn’t forever. Nora, meanwhile, sweating, sighing, and starting to regret her choices, among other things, started to get a small headache. She wanted, firstly, to only blame the heat. 

One by one, six prayer-like candles were lit. The brothers, Pamela, and Bobby all took their seats around the table, shooting each other unsure looks. Nora, fed up with sitting in the car, got out to stretch her legs. She leaned on the side of the car taking a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling the warm sun on her skin.

The other’s held hands. Pamela placed her hand, first on Dean’s thigh, flirting continued, and she moved it to the hand print on his shoulder. Before she began to search for the thing that brought him and Nora back she looked between the brothers. 

“The girl should be in here too. She’s got the same mark right?”

Nobody said anything for a beat and then Sam cleared his throat. 

“Just…give her some time.”

Then something happened just as their eyes all closed. 

“I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle!”

Nora doubled over in pain clutching her head. She fell to the sidewalk gripping the hot concrete. 

“I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle! I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle!”

_Turn away._

The television in Pamela’s house flickered on, but only static appeared. 

Nora slowly moved her hands away from her head and turned her gaze from the sidewalk to straight above her, straining to see because of the sun’s rays. There it was again, the voice and it was coming from above her. It almost sounded like he was next to her, peering down at her. 

“I invoke, conjure, and command…Castiel? No. Sorry, Castiel. I don’t scare easy.”

“Castiel,” Dean questioned, his voice raising. 

“It’s name. It’s whispering to me, warning me to turn back.”

The table they were seated at began to shake then. 

Nora felt the ground beneath her start to vibrate. Her arms hovered above the ground trying to steady herself. She noticed the dirt in the path bouncing on the ground and shifting. The blades of grass were swaying without wind. 

“I conjure and command you, show me your face! I conjure and command you, show me your face! I conjure and command you, show me your face! I conjure and command you, show me your face!”

The rattling outside and in became more violent. 

“I almost got it. I command you, show me your face! Show me your face now!”

The candles on their table flared up several feet in the air and Pamela began to scream. Her eyes flew open and were instead replaced with white-hot flames. 

Outside, directly in front of Nora, a crack in the cement sent her backwards and she slammed herself into the car. Her breaths were labored and uneven to the point she felt she might pass out if she couldn’t catch it. Nora’s eyes were glued to the crack in the sidewalk and she heard his voice again. 

_Nora._

It felt like time stood still for only a few seconds before she was hurled back into reality. Slow at first, where she saw Sam running outside and to her side. He shook her shoulders calling her name because she wouldn’t look at him. She snapped back when Dean came running towards them too, finally looking up at the two of them with fear in her eyes. 

“What’s wrong with her,” Dean asked frantically to Sam. 

“Nora…hey, come on. Come on, Nora, what happened,” Sam asked her, at eye level and his hands still gently gripping her shoulders. 

She then felt the urge to do something unexpected, in the brother’s eyes and definitely hers. Tears began to spill from her eyes from the inability to hold them in. In that moment, everything started to hit her all at once. Waking up in the trunk of a car after being tortured in hell. Hanging around strangers. The dreams. The enigma wrapped in an enigma about who she was and where she came from and why she was killed and brought back to life. She looked up into Sam’s eyes and found herself practically throwing her body into his. She wrapped her arms tightly around his shoulders, knocking him back onto the sidewalk so he was sitting with her in his lap and she just cried and held him tightly. 

Though hesitant, Sam cautiously wrapped his arms around her back and looked up at his brother nervously to which Dean returned the same look of confusion and worry. 

“Nora…Nora you’re shaking. What happened? Nora…”

Still basically latched onto him, her head over his shoulder, she brought her hands up in front of her face from around his back and watched them as they trembled uncontrollably. 

**Astoria Motel 10 p.m.**

By some miracle, the brothers were able to calm Nora down, but not enough to get her to talk. So, that’s where they found themselves now. After Bobby rushed off into the ambulance with Pamela the brothers and Nora came back up to Sam’s motel room. Somehow knowing what happened to Pamela didn’t make her any less scared. At this point she was becoming numb to all life threatening or Earth shattering news. When they had gotten back Sam pulled out several books ready to dive in and at least try to find something that matched what they were possibly up against. She sat on one side of the bed facing away from Dean who was nodding off, reading the words but not comprehending anything. It was the snore that ripped through the silence of the room that made her shut her book and set it aside. She and Sam both looked over to Dean, his book laid open against his chest and his mouth was wide open. They both snickered and Sam’s lips turned down as he saw Nora smile for the first time. When she noticed him staring at her she closed her lips, biting the bottom one. There was an uncomfortable silence between the two of them before she spoke. 

“About…earlier. I’m sorry. I was just…”

“No need. I get it. I can’t even imagine what you must be going through. Both of you.”

Sam thought she was apologizing for the lack of communication and her fragile state, but in reality she was apologizing for throwing herself into him like she did. Though, she figured she would just let him believe he knew what she was talking about. She didn’t think she was a hugger, at least, she thought she might not be. Again, it was hard telling what kind of a person she was. Still, she knew certain people weren’t into the whole touchy feely thing and never intended to cross any kind of line. Although by the looks of it, Sam didn’t seem bothered, so it brought her some relief. 

“Listen, I don’t want to seem pushy or anything, but I just want you to know, that we’re both here for you. I know Dean can seem a little…”

“Like an asshole,” she finished. They both smiled. 

“Yeah…but he means well and whenever you’re ready to talk, we’ll be here to listen. We want to help you and at this point…I’d say you’re stuck with us.”

Chewing the inside of her cheek she only nodded looking down at her hands that of which were calmer now. She stared at the words in the open journal sitting on the bedside table. The journal belonged to their father, apparently. He had died not too long ago at the hands of a big boss demon. Everything he knew. Everything he experienced was in this journal. Just a little over 24 hours ago she had only believed demons were the real deal, but it turns out these guys had been dealing with pretty much an umbrella of evil. 

“Does it ever get easier? I don’t think I could ever get used to this,” she muttered. 

Sam furrowed his brow and inhaled a deep breath before letting it out loudly and shaking his head. 

“There’s moments. It’s never been easy, but somehow we always manage to find something good to come out of it. Saving innocent people’s lives. Getting rid of the evil that exists. I mean, the motels, the driving cross country because Dean’s afraid of flying, the junk food, it sounds disgusting and unpleasant, and it is, but it’s kind of all I know. And if we get to save someone’s daughter, brother, parent…that’s good enough for me, ya know?” 

Nora nodded. 

“I guess you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t enjoy it even a little bit, right,” she asked. 

Sam took a minute to consider his answer. It was never really about choice. He could walk away, but it was always going to hang around him. 

“I don’t think it really is a choice.”  
Somehow that brought her no relief either knowing just by the tone in his voice that this life wasn’t one he ever wanted for himself. She knew this because of John’s words. There had been a section where he wrote about Sam leaving for Stanford. How he had given up on his family, on this life as a hunter, on his own mother that died because of a demon. From his father’s words she could tell he resented Sam for it. As she read it, though, she felt sorry for Sam, but couldn’t place her feelings as to explain why she felt that way. She began to think about her brother and pulled out the picture from her back pocket of him and who she guessed might have been her father and stared down at the wrinkled piece of glossy paper. 

There was a long moment of silence before she spoke again.

“I look at these people and although they look kind of like me, the longer I stare at it…the more they begin to look like strangers.”

Sam shifted in his chair by the desk just a few feet from her and watched her. He didn’t say anything and instead stayed quiet, hoping that his silence would prompt her to continue to talk. He was hoping at some point he would get a peak into what was going on inside her head. 

“I went to Hell for him and…I don’t even know why. I can’t help but wonder why and why I was left in the trunk of their car. I want to find them, but…I’m terrified,” her voice cracked in the end and tears, again, threatened to spill, but this time she let them, too overwhelmed to hold them in. Nora folded the picture and stuffed it back into the pocket of her jeans. She turned away from Sam peering at Dean behind her and then back to Sam. “You’d do anything for him right?”

Sam nodded.

“I wasn’t supposed to leave, and then…something just found him and then decided to take me too. I know you said you didn’t have anything to do with getting him out, but you tried right?”

Again, he only nodded. 

“Maybe they did the same for me, ya know? My brother or my father? What if they-“ She couldn’t finish her sentence as she tried to choke back a sob at the thought of either of them being there in her place now. There’s no way Hell would allow for all of them to be walking the Earth. Hell was all about an eye for an eye. Sam, aware now of the turmoil in Nora’s mind, came over to her and sat next to her. 

“Nora, I promise you. Once we figure out what we’re dealing with here, we’ll find them. We’ll get answers. For everything.”

There was a reassurance in his voice that made her break through her shyness at crying in front of him. She looked up at him, realizing how close he was now next to her and tried not to be obvious about moving a little bit over, but he noticed. His lips tightened and he shifted too. There was an uncomfortable silence now where all they could hear was each other’s breaths and Dean’s snores. Nora cleared her throat and stood up abruptly. 

“I’m gonna take a shower.”

In the time it took for her to stand in the bathroom and study herself in the mirror, turn on the shower and get in, Sam had decided upon himself to leave them behind. He went back to the diner they had stopped by on their way back where demons had been possessing everyone inside waiting for their chance to scare them into telling them what had taken Dean and Nora out. They too, as it turned out, were just as terrified. He took the car and waited outside, watching the diner for any movement. 

**30 Minutes Later**

Nora held her head down under the shower head letting the poor flow of water run over her, her hair hung by both sides of her face like a wet curtain. She watched the water spin into the drain beneath her. In her time standing in the water, not properly taking a shower, but trying to busy her mind and body, in her mind she had failed. The water she had turned up to practically boiling which in turn made her have flashes of memories of her time in Hell. Each strike of a weapon, always a different one, had her jump and feel the pain in the area of her body where she was stabbed, cut, or sliced. She was reminded of being strung up, seemingly, in mid air and feeling the fire licking her toes until it completely engulfed her only to be brought back brand new and have it happen all over again. Each memory got worse and worse. Mara smiling devilishly at her as she backed out of her cell one time to make room for a gang of demons, men and women alike, who cornered her in her cell and did unspeakable things to her. The time she had been stripped naked and pushed into a body of water that appeared out of nowhere and must have been below negative temperatures. Only, when she reached the bottom, flames took her body. She’d be rebuilt again when the freezing water would come back and take out the flames. Repeatedly, she’d drown as her body went into shock and suffocate from the fire. So many bruises and cuts she should’ve had on her body and as she looked down at her frail naked body, not a single sign of evidence of the torture she endured. The only scar she bore now was the raised handprint on her shoulder. Every scar she carried with her now was in her mind. 

She took in a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair on both sides rubbing the water out of her eyes when she found herself having to brace the porcelain wall. There it was again, the voice. The bathroom lights flickered and she felt the whole room shake. Terrified, Nora sunk to the floor of the tub holding her hands over her ears and staring up at the lights going on and off. Even with her hands over her ears she could still hear the voice. 

_Nora, don’t be afraid. We’re here to help._

The voice repeated this over and over until the glass shattered from the bathroom mirror along with the light bulbs above it. The shower turned off and Nora was left in complete and total darkness, huddled, naked, and shivering in the bathtub.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's been like literally a month I think. Lots going on and I also got sick, so that was a bummer. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 4

 

Her breaths were so loud they nearly echoed off the walls of the small bathroom. It was too dark to see anything. She waited on the bathtub floor trembling for what felt like hours, but had only been maybe a couple of minutes. On unstable legs, she found herself standing up, grabbing the wall to hold herself steady. She felt around blindly for anything to conceal herself with and managed to find, first, the cold surface of the towel rack, and second the actual towel. She wrapped it around her body and stuffed the corner securely above her breast. About to step out of the tub, she remembered that the mirror and the light bulbs had shattered and now wondered if she should call for Dean. Just as Nora opened her mouth to call out for him, the door slammed open. Her back collided with the wall and she held onto her towel in modesty. There, frantic, bleeding out of his ears and staring at her with wild eyes, was Dean. For only a few beats she felt threatened just by the look on his face, but then he held both hands out to her, walking over the glasses covered tiles with his boots on and beckoning her to grab a hold of him. With one foot, she placed it on the rim of the tub, and once steady, the other. Nora felt even more uncomfortable at the fact that he now, though looking at her with a look that asked for permission, wrapped his arms, one around her waist and one at the bend of her knees. He swooped her up and carried her out of the bathroom, putting her down in an area that wasn’t covered by glass. 

Nora glanced around at the room in shock at the scene before her. The mirror that so classily hung parallel over the bed had completely shattered and scattered, jagged piece laid upon the bed and around it. She felt the cool breeze from the now broken windows, envelope her still wet skin and she shivered not only of fear but now the cold. Dean took notice and went to grab his military style jacket, bringing it over to her and placing it around her shoulders. She nodded to him in thanks. That’s when she looked over the doorway and saw Bobby had come back. None of them knew what to say. It wasn’t exactly the first time they had experienced something like this in the last forty-eight hours, give or take. And yet, each time it did, it only instilled an uneasiness in all of them. As if they all weren’t already uneasy to start with. 

“Did you hear it again? The voice,” Dean broke the silence. 

Nora found herself speechless, like the thoughts in her head couldn’t or wouldn’t make for cohesive explanations. All she could do was nod or shake her head. So she nodded. 

“Well what did it say,” Bobby asked frazzled. 

She figured she must look crazy. She could still feel her body shaking. She knew her eyes must have been wide open, unblinking. Her eyes were darting back and forth between the two men before her and the reflective pieces congregating on the floor below her. It was because she only just remembered that she had, in fact, heard the voice again. It brought tears to her eyes not because it scared her, at least, scaring her not being the only reason, but because she felt like she was losing her mind. If it weren’t for the fact that Dean was hearing a noise at the same time she was hearing a voice she would’ve one-hundred percent believed she was, indeed, crazy. The only thing that made it seem worse for her was the fact that this thing, whatever it was, had the ability to talk to her privately, exclusively, and she had been able to hear and understand it. 

Nora swallowed back a sob and clenched her teeth before she opened her mouth to answer, feeling how dry her throat was in that moment. 

“It…it told me not be afraid. That they were here to help,” her voice cracked. 

“They,” Dean questioned, frightened, “So now it’s more than one?” 

No one said anything and Nora watched Dean pace the room, looking up at the ceiling as if he’d find the answer up there and then he began to speak. 

“Listen you douchebag,…Castiel, or whatever the fuck your name is! You can bother me all you want, but you leave her out of this! You hear me?! What do you want, huh?!”

Nora flinched the louder his voice got and that’s when she noticed an absence in the room. 

“Where’s Sam?”

It was as if they had all forgotten he was back with them now. Dean hurriedly walked over to the window, sticking his head out and looking down. He turned around and back into the room muttering a disappointed, damn it, before looking back at Nora and feeling stupid for not handing her any clothes. He knew he didn’t have much for her that would fit considering she was left with only the clothes on her back and nothing else. So, he did what he could until further notice. He handed her, her own pair of jeans, but gave her a pair of his own clean boxers and a flannel shirt for the time being. She took them in quiet thanks and he helped, along with Bobby to clean up the bathroom floor and clear it of glass before she walked inside and closed the door behind her. 

——————————————————————————-

 

As soon as she had gotten dressed, the three of them took off in Bobby’s car. Bobby and Nora had it in their minds that they were going to find Sam. Dean had other plans. Nora watched from the back seat as Dean dialed what must have been Sam’s number and listened to his one-sided conversation. Only, instead of telling the truth he said they were all grabbing a beer. She squinted in confusion and continued to listen until he finally hung up. 

“Grabbing a beer, huh?”

“Yeah, why the hell didn’t you tell him,” Bobby piggybacked her question. 

“Because he would just try and stop us, you know it.”

“Stop us from what?”

“Summoning this thing.”

Bobby and Nora stared at Dean in shock. Here she was, here they all were scared to death of what this thing was and what it wanted from them and Dean wanted to bring the damn thing to them? Did he not see her shaking to death back in the motel? Did he not listen to a thing she had said about hearing the voice? Sure, it was never threatening, but why should that mean she trust it? 

“You can’t be serious,” she asked, hopeful, but not by much.

“As a heart attack. It’s high noon, baby! I mean come on, Nora. Don’t you want to know?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Well…yeah, but I would at least like to know what we’re dealing with before I go and ring the doorbell.”

Dean turned in his seat and saw the distressed look on her face. It was the first time he really let it sink in, just by looking at her, that for once somebody had it worse than him. At least he knew about the life, had known for quite some time. He couldn’t even imagine coming back from Hell with your slate clean and nothing on you but a name and that you can suddenly hear a voice that you probably wouldn’t normally. 

“Dean…we don’t even know what this thing is,” she reiterated, “It could be anything.”

“That’s why,” he turned back and unsheathed the demon knife they carried around with them, “we’ve got to be ready for anything. We’ve got the big-time magic knife, you’ve got an arsenal in the trunk…” 

He referred to Bobby who still looked like he wasn’t fully onboard. 

“This is a bad idea,” he tried to convince Dean. 

“I couldn’t agree more, but what other choice do we have?”

Nora scoffed in the back seat.

“I don’t know, maybe the one where we all live,” as if that were such a hard choice. 

She could tell Dean was getting frustrated in their lack of confidence in him and turned to face her again. She quieted down fast when she saw fear etch away at his features for the first time. It was in the way he couldn’t look at her directly. Like if he did she would know too much. 

“Guys, whatever this is, whatever it wants, it’s after me. It’s probably after you too. That much we know, right? I’ve got no place to hide and as long as you’re here with me, Nora, neither do you. So, either we continue to let this thing fuckin…scream in our ears or worse… or we can take our stand.”

She considered this fighting an internal battle within her better judgement. On the one hand this thing could be telling her the truth, that it meant no harm. That way maybe she could get some answers from it. On the other…

“We could use Sam. No offense, but Nora isn’t exactly through Hunting 101.”

Nora glared at Bobby, clearly offended though she knew he was right. 

“Naw. He’s better off where he is.”

————————————————————————————————————

It came to no surprise to Sam himself that he was where he was at now. Sitting in the diner him and his brother and Nora had visited in-between driving back to the motel where demons had interrogated them about the mysterious being that dragged Dean out of Hell with Nora attached like a BOGO sale. Only, now the demons laid to waste on the floor, their eyes burned out. He was regaining his strength back, sitting opposite Ruby, a demon only he knew to still be alive and one he kept his relationship with secret from Dean and now Bobby and Nora. She was helping him hone in on his ability to cast out demons from their vessels with his mind. 

“So, million dollar question, are you going to tell Dean about what we’re doing,” Ruby asked with a slight tone of annoyance that she was clearly trying to hide. 

Sam watched his hands holding tight onto each other, like he was embarrassed. 

“Yeah, I just…Look I just need time, okay? That’s all.”

She shot him a look and tired to reason with him.

“Sam, he’s gonna find out eventually and if it’s not from you he’s gonna be pissed.”

“He’s gonna be pissed either way. You know how he is about the psychic stuff.”

Ruby’s voice became sickly sweet. To anyone else, and especially coming from a demon nonetheless, it would almost seem feigned what she told him.

“Maybe…I’ll take a step back for awhile.”

Sam tried to protest, but she stopped him. 

“I’m not exactly in your brother’s fan club, but he is your brother, and I’m not going to come between you.”

Sam peered at her and she could tell he was struggling between what was moral and immoral. 

“I’m just…I don’t know if what I’m doing is even right. If I even trust you.”

“Thanks,” she said insulted. 

“I just mean, I do know that I’m saving people. I’m getting rid of demons and that feels good, so, I wanna keep going.”

Ruby shot him a satisfied smile and watched him, still struggling with his own words and his own decisions and remembered something else that was bothering her, maybe even bothering him. 

“And what about this Nora girl? Can we trust her?”

Sam looked up at her with a furrowed brow wondering why she would even bring her up into this conversation. Nora wasn’t someone he was worried about spoiling any mission. She hardly knew a thing about him and from what he knew she didn’t know about his powers. Had certainly never seen them in action. He studied Ruby’s face, her expression showing that she was definitely concerned about her and he wondered why. Did she know something? 

“Why? You think she’s a threat?”

Ruby scoffed and laughed. 

“Hardly. I just think it’s bad enough your brother not knowing, but her too? She could rat you out.”

Sam shook his head, convinced.

“Naw, Nora wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t know that. You hardly know her, right? Plus, she wasn’t even supposed to be free from Hell. She wasn’t even supposed to be in Hell. Doesn’t that kind of make you wonder why the demons wanted her to stay down there?”

“She told us, she made a deal to save her brother from being there. Doesn’t sound like she’s bad to me.”

“Yeah, so she says, but can you trust that?”

He watched her trying to figure out why she cast so much doubt in him about Nora and that’s when he saw the fear in her face, the way she looked nervous almost. 

“You’re scared of her,” he stated, more than asked. 

She practically jumped down his throat for a chance to defend herself. 

“I’m not scared. I want you to surround yourself with people you can trust, is all. You have your brother, you have Bobby,” her sentence faded like she suddenly got embarrassed, “…you have me.” 

They both slipped into a deep silence which only let Sam’s mind wander. On top of everything else, he was now questioning Nora’s place in all of this. 

—————————————————————————————————————

 

Dean and Nora sat on a chipped wooden table side-by-side, their feet dangling. Dean stared at nothing, twirling his knife in one hand and whistling while Nora stared at the spray-painted, white symbols that Bobby had filled every inch of the abandoned warehouse they had found on their drive. None of which making any sense to her. They had all three sat in silence with each other for God only knows how long after using some summoning spell. At this point it wasn’t looking like it was working and if it had the thing clearly wasn’t up for a chat. Bored out of her mind, she looked over at the table opposite of them filled with weapons. Some she had seen before or at least knew what they were and some she had never seen before. Stakes, iron, silver, salt. The knife, Dean was now using to carve unknown scribbles into the table with. However long ago. Dean had mentioned they were pretty much set for anything to come into this warehouse. At least, everything he knew existed. 

 

At Nora’s heavy sigh, Dean turned to look at her, eying her up and down, only just to figure her out. As if by taking in her appearance some answers would magically appear. Here was this girl, he was pretty sure he had never seen or had any interaction with ever in his life and suddenly she’s linked to him like they were bound by fate or some mystical bullshit. When he looked back up at her side profile he saw her eyes cast a quick glance at him which let him know he was being weird and she was uncomfortable. Shaking his head he cleared his throat and tried to focus on something other than her. Nora crossed her arms and looked over at Bobby who, at some point, had sat across from them on an opposite table and was looking between the both of them in confusion. 

“Everything okay,” he asked, suspicious. 

Dean shrugged his shoulders looking around.

“Peachy, why do you ask,” he answered sarcastically. 

Bobby held his hands up, raising his brows. 

“Sorry, touchy touchy, huh?”

Once again, they all fell into silence again. The sighs loud and the eyeballs rolling.   
“Are we sure that we did this thing right,” Dean asked impatient to which Bobby shot him a look that said are you fucking kidding me? 

Dean mocked him, “Sorry. Touchy, touchy, huh?”

Not a second later did they all nearly jump out of their skins. A loud rattling started to shake the roof, the wooden panels barely latched on moving with the wind hurling open and slamming shut in an offbeat pattern. While Bobby and Dean, on instinct alone, grabbed their weapons, Dean the demon killing knife, and Bobby a shotgun, Nora found herself clutching the sides of her head and falling to her knees. The sound coming from all around her was a sound she swore she would never get used to. 

_I mean you no harm. Tell your friends to drop their weapons._

Her jaw started to ache the harder she clenched her teeth. 

“Wishful thinking, but maybe it’s just the wind,” Dean yelled over the noise. He look down to Nora and kneeled next to her, still ready to attack, but making sure she was okay. He saw the strained look on her face and knew she was experiencing the voice again. 

“What’s it saying,” he asked, still having to yell. 

She took a minute to answer him as the voice kept repeating the same thing over and over. She was having to try to, unsuccessfully, block it’s voice just so she could hear herself think and answer Dean. 

“He’s saying…he’s saying he won’t hurt us. He wants you to put your weapons down!” 

The expression on Dean’s face was clear in that there was no way in Hell he or Bobby were going to do that. He held out his hand for Nora to take and helped her stand, urging her to get behind him and she did, but hovered close. 

The doors then burst open and that’s when she had to shield her eyes. A gust of wind stirred up loose dirt on the ground and blew towards them. They had to shield their eyes for a second and for Nora, for reasons other than just getting it in her eyes for she was suddenly finding herself being blinded. In that moment, and unknowingly between the three of them, they were all experiencing something entirely different. 

To Bobby and Dean’s eyes, they saw a man stalk forward, ordinary in his appearance. He wore a black suit, a royal blue tie, and tan trench coat. The closer he got the more he looked like any guy walking around Wall St. The only difference being he looked a little more disheveled as his tie was a little off-center, his coat as if he’d been sitting around with it on for hours, the evidence in the wrinkles and his dark brown hair twisting wildly on his head. He gazed at them with an expression they couldn’t quite place. 

To Nora’s eyes, however, she only saw an outline of a man, filled with an intense blue light. The closer he got the more detailed he became. If she didn’t know any better she’d swear she saw galaxies spinning and spreading out like veins throughout his entire being. 

The three of them ducked as the lightbulbs above them started to burst in a shower of sparks just as this thing passed them, as if he was controlling them, or in Nora’s case, absorbing their energy, as each spark seemed to magnetically attach to him and find a home among the splattering of stars that made him, him. 

With one hand hovering over her eyes, she watched the man between her fingers in complete awe and was interrupted just as quickly when both Bobby and Dean started shooting rounds into him. She saw the bullets penetrate his body, scattering the galaxies like a water droplet creates ringlets, but nothing seemed to be slowing him down. In disbelief, and as Dean ran out of bullets, he threw the gun down and grabbed his knife getting close to the man.

“Who are you,” he yelled. 

The loud noises went silent almost immediately. 

For the first time Nora heard the voice she had been hearing but as softly as she had ever heard for he now stood in front of her and Dean at close range. 

“I’m the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition,” he answered matter of factly. Like it was obvious. 

“Yeah. Thanks for that.”

Dean had become someone, on the surface at least, Nora could understand. He was a kill first, ask questions later kind of guy and, unfortunately for this guy, he was about to receive that from him. Dean reared back and plunged the knife straight into his chest. Not a single movement. The man stood there, the smallest grin on his face, unconcerned and he pulled the knife out and let it clang on the floor as the three of them stood there with their mouths practically on the floor. Bobby took the initiative and tried to attack him from behind by swiping the butt end of his shotgun towards the man’s head but he stopped him without looking, grabbing the gun and using it to turn Bobby around towards him. He touched Bobby on the forehead and Bobby’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the ground. 

Nora wanted to run to Bobby to make sure he was okay, but Dean stopped her, laying a hand on her arm to signal for her to stay where she was. The man looked between the two of them and back to Dean. 

“We need to talk, Dean,” and he raised his hand then, gazing at Nora, and snapped his fingers. Right in front of their eyes, Nora mimicked Bobby in falling to the ground unconcious, “Alone.” 

—————————————————————————————————————-

 

1983

_Honor sat at the bar, the beat of New Order’s, “Blue Monday” pulsing through her ears and the bodies in front of her, next to her, all around her. She only tapped her studded black leather boots to the beat. The smell of hairspray, sweat, and alcohol clouded her senses almost entirely, but she kept her eyes glued to the man across the room dancing with an innocent girl. Innocent because she had no idea that he was no man at all. Not on the inside at least. Every now and then the dim atmosphere, blue and red lights, and general cover of smoke would cast shadows across their faces. The girl’s eyes, bright, practically shinning as she kept them on the man. His, however, she could swear were black the entire time. She kept trying to think why this girl wasn’t screaming her lungs out, but she supposed the club changed people. This place was like a den of sin. Perfect hunting ground for the demon she couldn’t keep her eyes off of._

_She watched them move in synchronization. His hands stayed attached to her hips. Her hands on his arms. He leaned his head of perfectly quaffed hair beside hers and whispered something in her ear and that’s when Honor made her move. She felt for her blade tucked perfectly in the inside pocket of her oversized blazer and watched the demon take the girl’s hand and lead her out of a side door that led to a back alley. Honor hastened her steps and beelined herself through the crowd, apologizing when she would bump a few people. She had almost made it to the door when a man stopped her in her steps, a couple feet taller than her and peering down at her._

_“Excuse me,” she shouted over the music, frustrated._

_The man, appearing to be of Asian descent and dressed, if Honor had to admit, a little opposite of every other man in the room. His black hair wasn’t styled in any way, smoothed down and parted to one side. He wore baggy black jeans and a white t-shirt, a dark denim buttoned down shirt over it and opened and white Nike Airs. She took in his appearance with only mild curiosity, wondering if he was a demon too and only trying to stop her._

_“Oh, uh, I’m- I’m sorry. I just…I just saw you at the bar and…”his sentence trailed off and he looked anything but confident speaking to her._

_Honor shook her head, widened her eyes, as if urging him to continue. The man cleared his throat and let out a short breath._

_“I was wondering…if you…if you wanted to dance with me?”_

_She sized him up a little and laughed, “Listen uh…?”_

_“Matt.”_

_“Matt. That’s very sweet of you, but I’m a little busy, so if you don’t mind.”_

_When she tried to move around him again he stopped her, rising her level of irritably._

_“Well, maybe I can buy you a drink?”_

_“Sorry, maybe can you just fuck off,” she said, done playing nice._

_She wasn’t usually so cold, but her mission was important. She owed it to John really. He had basically took her under his wing for one hunt. A vampire nest in Van Nuys. Taught her everything and more, and it was the least she could do for him. Especially knowing this particular demon had connections with the yellow-eyed son of a bitch that killed his wife just a couple months back._

_Still, the look on Matt’s face was enough to make her want to cringe at herself. It was as if he couldn’t muster up any words. Just a nod of his head in understanding before he turned away. She hesitated feeling embarrassed and, quite frankly, like a heinous bitch before she headed out the side door in search of the demon._

_When she walked out the door she was immediately hit with a cold wind that felt like needles picking at her skin, such a stark contrast to the pooling heat inside. She saw the fog of her own breath periodically cloud around her mouth as she let out deep breaths. Frantically, she looked both directions only seeing the occasional club goer taking a cigarette break or making out under the cover of the dim orange street lights. No sign of the demon or the girl._

_Matt, however, not ready to easily give up on her, made his way to the door he saw her walk out of and was fully ready to speak his mind on her behavior towards him as he spotted her and ran over to her._

Nora’s eyes fluttered open suddenly, starting to regain consciousness until she found herself slipping back into whatever it was the entity put her under. 

 

_Honor sat in a cheap motel room at a wobbly wooden table in front of the window watching the early morning sunrise with her feet curled up on the seat in front of her. She desperately searched for warmth in the oversized white shirt she found laying on the ground from last night. She could have easily worn her own shirt, but she found herself wanting to show off for Matt by wearing his instead. They had been seeing each other for quite some time, mostly just to hook up seeing as Honor never stayed in one place too long, but something happened the night before that changed everything. In the middle of their lust-filled night, deep in the throes of young love, his mouth neared her ear, hot breath fanned against her as he whispered lazily that he loved her._

_Matt felt her body go stiff and wondered if he had just royally fucked everything up. She turned her head towards him, placing both of her hands on each side of his face and studied his features before smiling and bringing his lips to hers. When they parted she reciprocated and confessed her love to him too._

Again, Nora started to come to only to find herself welcomed back to the hunter and the boy. To the flashes of moments in their lives. 

_Matt had found out everything. He knew what Honor did and he hadn’t taken the news lightly. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she could do it, he wasn’t like that about women, but what he didn’t like was the wondering if she would come home every night. He was ashamed to even admit that every night he wondered, would this be it? Would this be the night some creature of the underworld would take the woman I love? And he hated it, but he had to accept it. He would listen to her words, about how passionate she was about saving people’s lives and ridding the evil from the world and suddenly find himself feeling selfish._

_One fateful night, however, she had gone too far. Little did the two of them know that they had been followed for quite some time and all because of a little knife she had in her possession. A special knife that could kill demons, and the demons didn’t like that. They made a mockery of her, going as far as faking a news story about a woman being brutally murdered, but strangely as all of her blood was allegedly drained from her body; a vampire no doubt. It was supposed to be just any other case. She walked into the “nest” with confidence, a long blade and a syringe full of dead man’s blood, only to find she was surrounded by demons instead, and one of them brought a Hell hound with him. Another, the decapitated head of Matt. Her pride had gotten him killed. Just as her pride would kill her. The demons beat her to a bloody pulp before an invisible force, the Hell hound ripped her to shreds, ending her life._

_When she came to, she wondered how she could even do that. Above her were the screaming souls of the damned hovering in agony by chains that penetrated their bodies. She turned her head to the left and found herself on the outside of quite a large iron cage. Shielding her eyes, she saw a figure in the corner, his body nothing more but an outline filled with a bright white light. The figure seemed to notice her and stood up walking towards her. What must have been where the figures eyes would be shone in an unnatural shade not likely of human descent. They were bright read and their gaze focused on her._

_“So, you must be Honor,” the figure spoke._

_He noticed her squinting and realized she must be a special case._

_“I apologize. I would give you a more…limited form of myself to see, but I don’t have a vessel.”_

_She watched the figure in panic and he noticed this as well._

_“Don’t be frightened, child. Come closer.”_

_Honor wasn’t sure if what propelled her body forward was her or not, but she found herself standing and walking up to the rusted bars that separated them. She grabbed one bar in each hand and kept her gaze on the form of light. He reached what looked to be his hand out to her and laid it, palm down, on her forehead._

_Instantly, she saw flashes of an angel with its wings spread out before her, a human woman falling into his arms with love in her eyes._

_A housewife, dead from an indescribable and horrific car crash, her brand new luxury car submerged into an iced over lake before Christmas in the year 1950._

_A secretary in the 1960s, seduced by the promise of wealth who took another publisher’s work and claimed it as her own._

_She saw flashes of the Watergate scandal on a small TV and felt the nervousness of a woman knowing she was about to get caught for her involvement._

_The figure dropped his hand from her forehead and Honor had to catch her breath feeling like she had run a race._

_“Pity,” the figure said morosely._

_Honor stared at him confused as to what just happened and why he said what he had said._

_“W-who are you,” she whispered._

_The figure looked down at her, eyes still blazing red._

_“Lucifer, dear, and you are not the one I’m looking for.”_

_The last thing Honor could remember from then on was the feeling of the figure’s hand reaching into her chest and pulling out a ball of blue and white light before casting it out and watching it float up and up._

**Author's Note:**

> This story is also on Wattpad under the same name. So, years ago I had a whole 30+ chapter story written and then one day I just gave up and deleted it and never touched it again. However, the years went by and I was still thinking about it in the back of my mind, so alas, here we are. This is actually going to be a mixture of ideas I always had floating around that, originally, were two different stories, but I found a way to merge them into one instead. So, I know this is short, but the chapters will start to get longer as it progresses.


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